4 High-Return, Beginner-Friendly Investing Strategies for 2026

BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast

BiggerPockets

Education, Business, Investing

4.8 • 16.5K Ratings

🗓️ 5 November 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Want to start investing in real estate? Then you’ll need an easy way to get into the game: no huge fix and flips or pricey renovations, no 20-unit apartment buildings or hotels. If you’re starting now (or starting over), we have four real estate investing strategies that still work in 2025 (and most likely will in 2026) for beginner-friendly budgets and solid returns. Tony Robinson, host of the Real Estate Rookie podcast, has heard from hundreds of beginner investors and helped many of them grow and scale. He sees that things are changing, and they’re changing quickly. Dead strategies are making a comeback, popular properties are no longer as profitable, and beginners are feeling more analysis paralysis. How do you actually get your first deal done? Don’t make it so hard! Tony is sharing four beginner strategies that rookies can use to start investing. From low-money-down homes that make average Americans millionaires, to the big cash flow (with small properties) strategy that could replace your job, and even a 100% passive investment many rookies don’t think they qualify for. This could be the day your financial future changes forever. So, are you ready to invest? In This Episode We Cover Four beginner-friendly real estate investing strategies that work in 2025 The fastest path to financial freedom that average Americans can take advantage of How “co-living” could replace your job with high cash flow from regular rentals An Airbnb rebound? Why dropping vacation rental prices is a sign of deals for investors Yes, even rookies can make 100% passive income (using this one strategy) And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-1196 Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	So you want to invest in real estate, but you're not sure where to start.
0:03.0	Don't worry, we have all been there.
0:05.7	And I understand that all the information about real estate investing out there can be somewhat overwhelming.
0:11.7	So today, we're simplifying it.
0:14.0	Rookie investors, these are the strategies that are working in the current 2025 housing market.
0:26.3	Hey everyone, I'm Dave Meyer.
0:30.5	I made my own rookie real estate investment in 2010.
0:35.4	And now 15 years later, I'm the head of real estate investing at Bigger Pockets.
0:39.0	Today on the show, I'm joined by an expert in early stage investing real estate rookie podcast co-host Tony Robinson. Tony, thanks for being here,
0:44.7	man. Dave, I appreciate it, man. I'm super excited to dive into what's working for rookie investors
0:50.4	today. It feels to me that the strategies that work for rookies, maybe even a couple of
0:56.4	years ago, have changed a little bit. Is that what you're seeing? I think there's definitely
1:01.1	been a shift in the level of preparedness someone needs to do well today. I think the strategies
1:07.1	maybe so work, but how you jump into them and the bar that's needed to be successful
1:11.0	is maybe shifted. Oh, okay. I like that perspective. Well, let's just jump right into that.
1:15.6	So tell us a little bit more about what you're hearing from the rookie community and maybe just
1:20.8	extrapolate a little bit on what you just said about level of preparedness. Yeah, I think there's
1:26.0	one big thing, Dave, that's swirling around the minds of a lot of folks who are looking to get started. And that question is, is now a good time to start investing in real estate? I think that's the biggest question that we hear now more than ever before. And it makes sense, right? I mean, there's, obviously, you know the data better than anyone, right? But there's the interest rate environment that we're in.
1:45.4	There's the inflationary period that we just went through. There's the affordability issue that we're
1:51.0	dealing with. So there's definitely a lot of pressure on being a successful real estate investor today.
1:56.8	And because of that, there are a lot of folks who are asking, does it even make sense to get started?
2:01.2	But I still firmly believe, and we've interviewed enough Ricky investors, I've talked to enough seasoned investors.
	...

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